2003 session organisers advice
From BiOrgResources
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So you decided to run a session...
[Note - this was written by me, David Matthewman, in my capacity as head of programming, so some of it is specific to me. Some of it is also necessarily specific to the Docklands venue: for example, the rooms were named after areas of London, such as Camden and Edgware.]
OK, step one: take a few calm breaths and don’t panic. Yes, on the one hand, you’re about to spend an hour in a roomful of people who are going to expect you to talk intelligently about a subject that they may know quite a bit about themselves. And you’re probably going to be seeing a lot of them for the rest of BiCon too, so you can’t just run away and hide afterwards. If you’re very unlucky, you’ll be running a sessions that they‘ve been to before, and they might be about to make ... comparisons.
Fortunately, people have been there before, at past BiCons and other similar events, and you have the experience of a hundred nervous session facilitators to draw on. Because somehow, against all the odds, sessions tend to work, and the attendees get a lot out of them. If you’re confident about your session, of course, you go ahead and run it how you want. It’ll work just fine - there’s no ‘magic formula’ for the perfect session.
But if you’re not so certain, here are a few tips:
Filling the time
Some session topics almost write themselves, but with most, you’ll need to come up with some sort of structure so that you don’t either tail off after ten minutes, or find that you’re still talking two hours later. The session slots are all 1 hour 15 minutes and, while there’s no harm in running a session that’s shorter than this, it’s a bad idea to over-run. People get restless, and it messes up my carefully-planned timetable.
That’s a bad thing, you understand.
One way to avoid this is to write down between four and six ‘key points’ in the session that you’d like to cover, and divide the time roughly between them. Then, if you’re half way through the session but have only covered the first point, then you know that it may be time to speed the discussion up a bit (or at least adjust your expectations about how many of your points you’ll cover).
Different session formats
Most sessions at BiCon fall between two extremes. At one end, there’s the lecture-style monologue, in which you talk for exactly 75 minutes, conveniently leaving no time for questions at the end. At the other, there’s the free-for-all discussion, with you ‘moderating’ by interjecting carefully-timed inflammatory remarks and otherwise sitting back and watching the fun. Within this broad spectrum, there are other distinct varieties of session that you can run.
Some sessions are free-flowing debates, with you exerting the minimum of influence on where they go. This often works well, but it can also be useful to have a pre-prepared list of topics to seed the discussion with. You can either have these written down for your own use, or displayed as headings for people to add thoughts and comments to.
Splitting the session into smaller groups can work well. These groups can discuss particular subtopics, or just their own take on the main topic, and then report back with a summary later in the session. This approach works quite well for getting a lot of different topics discussed in a limited period of time, as you can split the groups according to which participant is interested in what subject.
Getting started
If you walk into the session room and your mind’s a total blank, here’s a quick opening gambit which should fill the first few minutes and allow you to get a feel for who’s there and what they’re expecting to get out of the session.
- Walk to the door, check for latecomers, walk back and sit down. This gives people a cue that the session’s about to start, and gives you something simple to do to take your mind off your nerves.
- Introduce yourself, and give people the session title. Don’t feel guilty about having this bit scripted; it’s about the only aspect of the session that you can plan in advance,
- Get everyone to introduce themselves, and give a brief run down of why they’re interested in the session and what they’re hoping to get out of it.
Of course, because this is the precisely the way that many sessions start, if you’re feeling a bit more confident then any changes that you can ring on this formula will be greatly appreciated and give your session a fresh feel.
The session rooms
All the session rooms are equipped with OHPs and a whiteboard, and the windows have blinds if you need privacy or just want to block the light out. Flip charts are available on request, although there’s not quite enough for one per session room. Camden has a video projector - please ask me if you want to make use of this.
All the session rooms have water coolers. Please draw the attention of your attendees to these, and let them take frequent water breaks if the weather’s hot.
There will be a sheet of paper that you can blu-tac over the window in the door marked ‘closed’ to indicate that a session has been closed, and no one else should enter.
Balanced participation
Every session has someone like me in it. It’s not that I like the sound of my own voice, honestly, it’s that I have an opinion on everything and can’t stand to let a point go past without making my own subtle perspective on it known.
People like me are useful in sessions. We raise interesting points, and can be guaranteed to fill any quiet points when you find yourself stuck for something to say. And we do genuinely get a lot out of the sessions we attend, which is gratifying for you.
But don’t let us have the floor to ourselves. Encourage other people to speak, and make it clear when you think we’ve said enough, and it’s someone else’s turn.
Organisers’ sessions
At 1pm each day, there will be a half-hour session organisers’ session in Edgware. This will be a chance for you to come and chat to me about requests for upcoming sessions, or to report back on sessions that have happened, and to share ideas with other session organisers. It’s entirely voluntary, and open to first-time organisers as well as old hands.
David Matthewman
